FCT Minister Nyesom Wike has dismissed opponents of his Rainbow Coalition as “baby politicians”, arguing that anyone who finds it difficult to support President Bola Tinubu for re-election in 2027 while backing candidates from other parties for legislative seats does not understand the art of political manoeuvring.
Wike delivered the verbal jab on Tuesday during his monthly media chat in Abuja, where he defended the coalition against criticism from some All Progressives Congress (APC) governors.
Apparently unimpressed by the objections to his political arrangement, the minister questioned why supporting Tinubu at the presidential level while favouring candidates from other parties in National Assembly elections should generate controversy.
“Anybody who says he does not recognise the importance of Rainbow Coalition is not a politician. Anybody who said that is a baby politician. Is there any conflict? There is no conflict. How does it confuse people?” he asked.
In Wike’s political classroom, apparently, loyalty does not have to wear the same party uniform at every level of an election.
To reinforce his argument, the minister reached back to the 2024 Edo governorship election, where he said members of a PDP faction known as the legacy group collaborated with the APC to defeat the preferred successor of then-Governor Godwin Obaseki.
Wike, who belongs to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said the alliance demonstrated how politicians could put aside party differences when pursuing a common electoral objective.
“That legacy group and APC now met to work together, and that was how they defeated Obaseki’s successor. If we did not do that, it would have been difficult for APC to defeat Obaseki,” he said.
The minister’s argument amounts to a defence of political flexibility in which presidential and legislative contests can produce different alliances, even among politicians who operate under different party banners.
But his blunt description of coalition critics as political infants adds a combative edge to the debate, particularly as parties and their leaders begin positioning themselves ahead of the 2027 general election.
Wike, however, gave no indication that opposition from APC governors would force him to abandon the arrangement, declaring that the Rainbow Coalition was not a temporary political experiment.
“For the Rainbow Coalition, it has come. It will stay. There’s nothing anybody can do about it,” he said.
With that declaration, Wike appears determined to keep his coalition alive, leaving his critics to decide whether his brand of political flexibility is strategic calculation or a complication they would rather avoid.
